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Green Party Convention Comes to NOLA (Photos)

Posted
Monday, January 27th, 2014

Jill Stein, photo by Bruce France

By Brandon Robert

Local pols aren't the only ones strategizing this week. Dr. Jill Stein came to New Orleans on Friday, and the Green Party leader discussed a shift from the two-party system. Stein, the 2012 presidential nominee, spoke before a packed room at the Healing Center for the Green Party of Louisiana’s 2014 statewide convention.

Citing recent democratic uprisings in the Middle East, Brazil, Turkey, Ukraine, and even the Occupy movement and fight against tar sands here in America, Stein applauded these examples of “people power rising up” and felt optimistic that more would come.

“The politics of fear gave us what we were afraid of,” Stein said in defense of voting for third party candidates. For years progressives have voted for the lesser of two evils (Democratic and Republican candidates), and Stein said this thought process has been wrong. She pointed to recent failures of President Obama, including the President’s push for war in Syria, bail outs of the financial sector that continue to this day through quantitative easing, support of Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA), and the upcoming Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP).

Recent Gallup polls have indicated that a record 42 percent of Americans identified as political independents, and 60 percent of Americans believe the Democratic and Republican parties are doing a poor job and a third major party is needed.

Locally, Stein concluded by focusing on a topic that hits close to home for residents of Southeast Louisiana: rising sea levels and coastal erosion due to climate change and human activity. She pointed out how overwhelming these issues would become over the next decades and how it would force humans to act. “The economy and climate are already showing [us] what is needed,” Stein said. “It's a public relations goldmine for greens.”